Cuban Sustainability

The Cuban Model of Sustainable Medicine

What Cuba has done with their medical system, food system, and transport system is nothing short of phenomenal. It is revolutionary in the purest form of the word. When Cuba lost half of its petroleum supplies and nearly all its fertilizers, pesticides, and medical supplies after the collapse of the USSR, it was forced to deal with issues of sustainability in short order. Cuba, I predict, is going to be one of those places we will wish we had studied more closely when oil prices soar and our own infrastructure starts to fall apart. Instead, the United States has ignored it, criminalized Americans wishing to visit it, and deprived Cubans (one of our closest neighboring countries) of food and medical supplies. Why will we wish we had studied it? They are a successful experiment for the post-peak-oil world in so many ways—converted to sustainable and organic agriculture, living on extremely limited fuel (it’s illegal to not pick up hitchhikers needing a ride), brilliantly organized to deal with hurricanes, highly educated, providing free medical care, both standard and alternative to all their citizens, as well as sending free doctors abroad to other countries, and providing free training for medical students from around the world. Now that’s what I call sustainable.

The Greening of CubaThis film documents the extraordinary transition of Cuba’s food system, after they lost access to pesticides and fertilizers from the USSR. They converted their food system to organic and sustainable methods, a fusion of old knowledge and modern methods.